UK’s fresh start

Date: 08/05/1997

SWEDEN'S representative at the Intergovernmental Conference talks summed up the feelings of many in Europe this week when he described the new British government's attitude to the EU as “a relief”.

Gunnar Lund was speaking after the UK's new Minister for Europe Doug Henderson told fellow IGC negotiators that the government wanted to make a “fresh start” in British relations with the rest of Europe and draw a line under “the recent past”.

Even an early clash between the European Commission and the new administration over whether its plan to cut VAT on domestic heat and fuel would be legal under EU rules failed to sour the atmosphere.

But while the widespread jubilation at the result is understandable, not least because the huge majority won by the Labour Party paves the way for a period of stable government in which Premier Tony Blair's hands will not be tied by the threat of rebellion on his own back-benches, his EU counterparts would do well to read the statement made by Henderson at the IGC talks this week carefully.

For it highlights that while the new British government is clearly intent on adopting a much more constructive tone towards Europe, it is nevertheless opposed to some proposals for EU reform which other member states see as crucial to the drive for closer integration.

German Chancellor Helmut Kohl led the way in heralding the UK election result as a victory against Euroscepticism, saying it showed that the British public had rejected the “anti-European rhetoric of the past few days and weeks”.

But such a conclusion is an over-simplification, as evidenced by the intense debate already raging within the ranks of the Conservative Party over whether its crushing defeat resulted from the amount of time it devoted to negative campaigning on Europe, or to its failure to take an even more strident tone by ruling out British membership of a single currency forever.

The fact that well-known Eurosceptics fared no better than other Conservatives candidates, and the paltry number of votes won by Euro MP and billionaire Sir James Goldsmith's Referendum Party, suggest that the former was the case, if indeed the EU played a part in many voters' minds.

But it would be wrong to assume that Tony Blair now has a free rein to take his country as far down the road towards a closer Union as others might like, even if he wants to.

The British public remains, at best, nervous about the EU - not least because it has been fed a diet of anti-Europeanism for so long - and Blair will have to tread carefully or risk sparking a bitter backlash at home.

After an election campaign in which the Labour Party was forced to take a vigorous stand on the defence of British interests to counter Conservative warnings that its opponents would lead the country into a federal European superstate, Blair cannot now be seen to go back on those words.

The chances of agreement on a new EU treaty at the June Amsterdam summit have undoubtedly increased. But Blair needs to be given some room for manoeuvre if he is to agree to a deal. His EU counterparts would therefore do well not to push him too hard, too early.